Learn about the Japanese phrase koto ga aru
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chigusa: おはよう、サンティアゴ。ちぐさです。(Ohayō, Santiago. Chigusa desu.) |
| Jun: おはよう、サンティアゴ。ジュンです。(Ohayō, Santiago. Jun desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #109. Chigusa-san, so what happened yesterday? |
| Chigusa: 停電 (teiden) |
| Peter: Blackout. |
| Chigusa: Yes. |
| Peter: In? |
| Chigusa: Tokyo. |
| Peter: I was really surprised. We almost didn’t get the lesson out yesterday. It was very close. Yes, but all was restored very quickly. Now today, we have another great lesson for you. We are going to cover talking about experiences and asking people if they have done something. Now this has been a popular request. Lots of people, they want to know how to ask. Have you done this, have you eaten that? Today, we are going to cover it all. Now as always, we are going to give you the dialogue once. Then we are going to give it to you slowly, then with the translation. So please see what you can pick up. Anything you pick up in the dialogue will just get reinforced when you go over it nice and slow. So with that said, let’s get into today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : お帰りなさい。お二人とも盛岡はどうでしたか。(Okaerinasai. O-futari-tomo Morioka wa dō deshita ka.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : とてもよかったです！(Totemo yokatta desu!) |
| じゅん (Jun) : 楽しくて、食べ物が美味しくて、また行きたいです。(Tanoshikute, tabemono ga oishikute, mata ikitai desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 何が美味しかったですか。(Nani ga oishikatta desu ka.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : 冷麺です。冷麺を食べたことがありますか。(Reimen desu. Reimen o tabeta koto ga arimasu ka.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいえ、食べたことはありませんが、テレビで見たことがあります。盛岡の名物でしょう。(Iie, tabeta koto wa arimasen ga, terebi de mita koto ga arimasu. Morioka no meibutsu deshō.) |
| じゅん (Jun) : そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいですね。私も食べたいです。(Ii desu ne. Watashi mo tabetai desu.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : はい、どうぞ。お土産です。(Hai, dōzo. O-miyage desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 盛岡冷麺ですか。いいんですか。(Morioka reimen desu ka. Ii n desu ka.) |
| たかせ&じゅん (Takase&Jun) : もちろん！(Mochiron!) |
| Chigusa: もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Yukkuri, onegai shimasu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : お帰りなさい。お二人とも盛岡はどうでしたか。(Okaerinasai. O-futari-tomo Morioka wa dō deshita ka.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : とてもよかったです！(Totemo yokatta desu!) |
| じゅん (Jun) : 楽しくて、食べ物が美味しくて、また行きたいです。(Tanoshikute, tabemono ga oishikute, mata ikitai desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 何が美味しかったですか。(Nani ga oishikatta desu ka.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : 冷麺です。冷麺を食べたことがありますか。(Reimen desu. Reimen o tabeta koto ga arimasu ka.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいえ、食べたことはありませんが、テレビで見たことがあります。盛岡の名物でしょう。(Iie, tabeta koto wa arimasen ga, terebi de mita koto ga arimasu. Morioka no meibutsu deshō.) |
| じゅん (Jun) : そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいですね。私も食べたいです。(Ii desu ne. Watashi mo tabetai desu.) |
| たかせ (Takase) : はい、どうぞ。お土産です。(Hai, dōzo. O-miyage desu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 盛岡冷麺ですか。いいんですか。(Morioka reimen desu ka. Ii n desu ka.) |
| たかせ&じゅん (Takase&Jun) : もちろん！(Mochiron!) |
| Chigusa: 今度は、ピーターの英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Pītā no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : お帰りなさい。(Okaerinasai.) |
| CHIGUSA: Welcome back. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : お二人とも盛岡はどうでしたか。(O-futari-tomo Morioka wa dō deshita ka.) |
| CHIGUSA: The two of you, how was Morioka? |
| たかせ (Takase) : とてもよかったです！(Totemo yokatta desu!) |
| TAKASE: It was really good! |
| じゅん (Jun) : 楽しくて、食べ物が美味しくて、また行きたいです。(Tanoshikute, tabemono ga oishikute, mata ikitai desu.) |
| JUN: It was fun, the food was delicious, and I want to go again. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 何が美味しかったですか。(Nani ga oishikatta desu ka.) |
| CHIGUSA: What was delicious? |
| たかせ (Takase) : 冷麺です。(Reimen desu.) |
| TAKASE: Reimen. |
| たかせ (Takase) : 冷麺を食べたことがありますか。(Reimen o tabeta koto ga arimasu ka.) |
| TAKASE: Have you ever eaten reimen? |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいえ、食べたことはありませんが、(Iie, tabeta koto wa arimasen ga,) |
| CHIGUSA: No, I've never eaten reimen, but |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : テレビで見たことがあります。(terebi de mita koto ga arimasu.) |
| CHIGUSA: I've seen it on TV. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 盛岡の名物でしょう。(Morioka no meibutsu deshō.) |
| CHIGUSA: It's Morioka's famous food, right? |
| じゅん (Jun) : そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| JUN: That's right! |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいですね。(Ii desu ne.) |
| CHIGUSA: That sounds nice. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 私も食べたいです。(Watashi mo tabetai desu.) |
| CHIGUSA: I also want to eat it. |
| たかせ (Takase) : はい、どうぞ。お土産です。(Hai, dōzo. O-miyage desu.) |
| TAKASE: Here you are. It's a souvenir. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 盛岡冷麺ですか。(Morioka reimen desu ka.) |
| CHIGUSA: Is this Morioka reimen? |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : いいんですか。(Ii n desu ka.) |
| CHIGUSA: Is this okay? |
| たかせ&じゅん (Takase&Jun) : もちろん！(Mochiron!) |
| TAKASE+JUN: Of course! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: So Chigusa-san, let’s ask Jun-san what he thought of today’s conversation? |
| Chigusa: ジュンさん、どう思いましたか。(Jun-san, dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Jun: 冷麵はすばらしいですね。(Reimen wa subarashii desu ne.) |
| Peter: Chigusa-san, what did he just say? |
| Chigusa: Reimen is great, he said. |
| Peter: He wasn’t too enthusiastic about that. Was he? |
| Jun: We are just talking about Reimen. So that was very good. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right. With that said, let’s get into today’s vocabulary. Here we go. Chigusa-san, first word. お願いします。(Onegai shimasu.) |
| Chigusa: 盛岡 (Morioka) |
| Peter: Capital of |
| Chigusa: 岩手県 (Iwate-ken) |
| Peter: Iwate Prefecture. |
| Chigusa: (slow)もりおか (Morioka) (natural speed) 盛岡 (Morioka) |
| Peter: Chigusa-san, what do you know about Morioka? |
| Chigusa: I know it’s famous for わんこそば (wankosoba). |
| Peter: And what’s this? |
| Chigusa: わんこそば (wankosoba) is you get a small amount of noodle in one bowl and after you eat that, the lady just keeps on adding noodles to your bowl. |
| Peter: So it’s All You Can Eat. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, it’s all you can eat until you tell her to stop. |
| Peter: Yeah, and we should point out that people can eat – some people can eat hundreds of these small. They are kind of – what’s the Japanese word for it? |
| Chigusa: 一口 (hitokuchi) |
| Peter: Which is? |
| Chigusa: Bite size. |
| Peter: One mouthful. |
| Chigusa: Yeah. |
| Peter: So you are just slurping down the Soba? |
| Chigusa: Right. |
| Peter: And it keeps coming and coming and coming until you say stop. |
| Chigusa: Yes, right. |
| Peter: If you are there, you have to try this. |
| Chigusa: Right. |
| Peter: Jun-san. What are some other things Morioka is famous for? |
| Jun: 岩手山 (Iwate-san) |
| Peter: And this is? |
| Jun: The Mountain. |
| Peter: This is actually a volcano. This can be seen from the city and it’s one of the most magical things about Morioka because you are inside the city and you see the huge mountain right beside you. In addition to this, Morioka also has a river running through it. Chigusa-san, what’s the name of that river? |
| Chigusa: 北上川 (Kitakamigawa) |
| Peter: And I believe this is the longest river on Honshu Island. |
| Chigusa: Really? |
| Peter: I don’t know. We will check that. All right, we are going to check that. Jun is looking at me like- I don’t know what I am talking about but yeah, I believe it’s the longest river on the Honshu island but we are going to check that. So don’t quote me yet. Come by, check the comments and then find out for sure. Finally Chigusa-san, what were we talking about last week in the Japanese culture class? |
| Chigusa: お盆 (o-bon) |
| Peter: And what does the fire symbolize at the end of お盆 (o-bon) |
| Chigusa: To send the spirits back to their world. |
| Peter: And what’s that in Japanese? |
| Chigusa: 先祖の霊を送る。(Senzo no rei o okuru.) |
| Peter: To send the ancestor’s spirits off. Now in Morioka, they have a very famous event to mark this and this takes place on the 16th of August and this is |
| Chigusa: 舟っこ流し (funakko nagashi) |
| Peter: And if you are fortunate enough to be in Morioka at this time, you can get a look at this. From the pictures that I have seen, it looks really amazing. You could find out more on the Morioka city website and they do have English and I believe German, yeah German and English. All right, with this said, let’s move on to our second word. ジュンさん、お願いします。(Jun-san, onegai shimasu.) |
| Jun: 冷麵 (reimen) |
| Peter: Cold noodles. |
| Jun: (slow)れいめん (reimen) (natural speed) 冷麵 (reimen) |
| Peter: Now this word is made up of two characters. Chigusa-san, what’s the first character? |
| Chigusa: 冷 (rei) |
| Peter: This means cool, cold, chill. The second word is |
| Chigusa: 麺 (men) |
| Peter: Which is noodles, wheat flour. So you take the character for cool and the character for noodles, put them together and you have |
| Chigusa: 冷麵 (reimen) |
| Peter: And that’s it, you have the literal meaning Reimen. Chigusa, can you tell us something about Ramen? |
| Chigusa: Ramen I think is originally from Korea. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Chigusa: Yeah. |
| Peter: And imported to Japan but there is something extremely special about Morioka Reimen. It tastes very different from what you are used to from what you can get in Tokyo or some of the other locations in Japan. Morioka is renowned for this. So if you can make it there, we highly recommend you try this. Next we have |
| Chigusa: 名物 (meibutsu) |
| Peter: Famous product, special product, specialty. |
| Chigusa: (slow)めいぶつ (meibutsu) (natural speed) 名物 (meibutsu) |
| Peter: Now the first character in this word. Chigusa-san, can you give us that? |
| Chigusa: 名 (mei) |
| Peter: This is a name, noted and also reputation. This is followed by the second character |
| Chigusa: 物 (butsu) |
| Peter: Also read as |
| Chigusa: もの (mono) |
| Peter: And this is thing, reputation thing. So when you put these two together, it becomes a famous product, something with a reputation, well known. Now words, compound kanji words that begin with the first character |
| Chigusa: 名 (mei) |
| Peter: Also translate into famous things. For example we have |
| Chigusa: 名画 (meiga) |
| Peter: Famous picture as in a famous motion picture. Character being |
| Chigusa: 名 (mei) |
| Peter: And |
| Chigusa: 画 (ga) |
| Peter: Character for picture. We also have |
| Chigusa: 名曲 (meikyoku) |
| Peter: Famous song. First character again the same, second character |
| Chigusa: 曲 (kyoku) |
| Peter: Which is |
| Chigusa: Song. |
| Peter: Okay, can we have an example sentence? |
| Chigusa: この町の名物は何ですか。(Kono machi no meibutsu wa nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: What is this town’s famous product? |
| Chigusa: これが私の町の名物です。(Kore ga watashi no machi no meibutsu desu.) |
| Peter: This is my town’s famous product and you can use this if you bring a souvenir from your hometown and you give it to someone in Japan. You can use the expression |
| Chigusa: これが私の町の名物です。(Kore ga watashi no machi no meibutsu desu.) |
| Peter: And what about if it’s a country if you buy something that represents your country, you can say |
| Chigusa: これが私の国の名物です。(Kore ga watashi no kuni no meibutsu desu.) |
| Peter: All right. So Chigusa-san, what’s Tokyo’s famous product? Nice to put you on the spot here. |
| Chigusa: There are so many. For example, in Asakusa, there is 人形焼 (ningyōyaki). |
| Peter: Which is |
| Chigusa: Little pancakes with 餡子 (anko) inside and they are shaped like the seven gods of Japan. |
| Peter: So if you are in Asakusa, you definitely want to try those, right? |
| Chigusa: Right. |
| Peter: I lived for an extended period of time in Mito and I think you also know what Mito’s famous product is |
| Chigusa: 納豆 (nattō)? |
| Peter: Yes, which ah – well let’s just get on to the next vocabulary word. |
| Chigusa: Okay. |
| Peter: Some that we’ve already gone over but we are just going to review them quickly. Jun-san. |
| Jun: お土産 (o-miyage) |
| Peter: Souvenir. |
| Jun: (slow)お土産 (o-miyage) (natural speed) お土産 (o-miyage) |
| Peter: And finally we have |
| Chigusa: もちろん (mochiron) |
| Peter: Of course. |
| Chigusa: (slow)もちろん (mochiron) (natural speed) もちろん (mochiron) |
| Peter: Now for interesting expressions in there, what did we say for the both of you? |
| Chigusa: お二人とも (o-futari tomo) |
| Peter: Now let’s break this down. What’s the word for two people? |
| Chigusa: 二人 (futari) |
| Peter: But what did we say in the conversation? |
| Chigusa: お二人 (o-futari) |
| Peter: Why is this? |
| Chigusa: To make it more polite. |
| Peter: We attach the prefix |
| Chigusa: お (o) |
| Peter: And this makes it more polite. Now what about what comes after that? |
| Chigusa: とも (tomo) |
| Peter: What does this mean? |
| Chigusa: Both. |
| Peter: So the both of you. The two of you. |
| Chigusa: Right. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, excellent. All right, now on to today’s grammar point. Today’s grammar point is the phrase |
| Chigusa: ことがある (koto ga aru) |
| Peter: And we will be looking at this phrase used with the past tense and when this occurs, it means that the subject has done something, has the experience of doing this thing or it can also mean there was a time when. We are going to look at the first meaning of this exemplified in today’s conversation. Now to get a better understanding of this, we feel it’s prudent to look at the literal meaning of this. |
| Chigusa: こと (koto) |
| Peter: Is a nominalizer. So what comes before that will be nominalized. Then we have |
| Chigusa: がある (ga aru) |
| Peter: There is. So there is this thing. This thing exists. That’s the literal meaning. When we translate it and interpret it into English, it becomes “to have this experience.” And this also kind of stems from the meaning, remember, when you have something, there are two ways you can say it. Let’s get an example. Chigusa-san, give me two ways to say I have a car. |
| Chigusa: 私は車を持っています。(Watashi wa kuruma o motte imasu.) |
| Peter: Literally I am holding a car and |
| Chigusa: 私は車があります。(Watashi wa kuruma ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: I have a car. There is my car. So this is where this comes into play. There is this thing, you have this thing. Now what comes before |
| Chigusa: ことがある (koto ga aru) |
| Peter: Is the plain past. In the dialogue, we had |
| Chigusa: 食べたことがある (tabeta koto ga aru) |
| Peter: Also we had |
| Chigusa: 見たことがある (mita koto ga aru) |
| Peter: Plain past plus |
| Chigusa: ことがある (koto ga aru) |
| Peter: Now just a quick reminder. If you are wondering about the plain past, again you just take the te-form and turn the て (te) into a |
| Chigusa: た (ta) |
| Peter: That’s it. Then we have the plain past. With that said, we are going to give you a short conversation between Chigusa-san and Jun-san talking about their experiences traveling in Japan. Okay. |
| Chigusa: ジュンさん、国内でどこに行ったことがありますか。(Jun-san, kokunai de doko ni itta koto ga arimasu ka.) |
| Peter: Jun. Where have you been inside Japan? |
| Jun: いろんなところに行ったことがあります。(Iron na tokoro ni itta koto ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: I have been to various places. |
| Jun: 私は京都に行ったことがあります。(Watashi wa Kyōto ni itta koto ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: I have been to Kyoto. |
| Jun: 沖縄にも行ったことがあります。(Okinawa ni mo itta koto ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: I have been to Okinawa. |
| Jun: 北海道にも行ったことがあります。(Hokkaidō ni mo itta koto ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: I have also been to Hokkaido and you can see but again plain past plus |
| Chigusa: ことがある (koto ga aru) |
Outro |
| Peter: All right. Long lesson today. More on this inside today’s PDF. Long lesson today. Now inside today’s PDF, we are going to have much more about this. Remember to stop by japanesepod101.com. That’s going to do for today. |
| Chigusa: またね。(Mata ne.) |
| Jun: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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